Sunday, April 19, 2015

A Lot of Lilly Love: A Tale of Two Targets

Gang, I'm tired. I don't know how anyone does Black Friday every year. It's simply not for me. I feel so ridiculous for being part of this experience, but here I am to tell the tale.

Let me paint a picture.
A colorful picture, mind you, but I wouldn't call it art.

When the Lilly Pulitzer for Target line was announced I was SO excited. I don't own anything from the beautiful, beachy line. It's simply too expensive for me to justify and the dresses I want (and there are many) very rarely, if ever, go on sale. The chance for me to obtain these pastel prints were in sight.

Little did I know the fight I would encounter first.

I did my research and was prepared. I was stoked on Saturday night waiting for midnight CST for the line to go live. Then I got on Twitter and the #LillyForTarget for the fun conversations I was sure to encounter.

Strangely, I saw links to products on the Target mobile site from influential bloggers. One after the other. Nothing was live on the site and people kept tweeting what they bought.

It was absolute mayhem and I was so stressed.

I downloaded the Target app, I went on the mobile site, I Googled the products to have them cued up for when it went live. At this point I was certain I wouldn't get anything. All of my planning came down to this?!?! I was more than annoyed. Soon the site crashed and everyone, even Kristen Davis, had issues. Target's President tweeted and said everything would go live at 2 am CST. I appreciated that he let us know, but still. I was so miffed that a select few people got products before the rest of us.

I wrestled with staying awake. I smacked myself for getting caught up in this frenzy of materialism. But I also put in this much effort, I might as well give it another go.

And so I waited.

Over the course of the next 90 minutes I flipped between my book and the Twitter feed. Ten minutes before it was supposed to go live on the site it started to go live on the app and on the mobile site.

The race was on.

I added things to my cart. It was deleted.

I added again. Spinning wheel of death.

I added on the app. Froze my phone.

Finally, the site flood gates opened, and I jumped on my quick opportunity to score some items. I was lucky to get three that were online-only items: the gold espadrilles, the one-piece suit and its matching scarf. Was I excited? Sure! Was I satisfied. Nope. I had my eye on dresses and I had to give it a shot at the store.

I was so jazzed that I couldn't fall asleep until 3am.

The Target a couple blocks from me (I know, so dangerous) opened at 8am. I woke up around 6:45. Woof.

I met my co-worker, who arrived before me. The line wasn't too long at this point, but the area went SILENT as I went to say hello. It was awkward. I wonder what would have happened had I actually cut in line, but I didn't take that chance. I assured everyone I'd get in my place at the end of the line. I hustled to it because the crowd was growing.

Luckily everyone was friendly (especially after I didn't cut in line). I was impressed by the store: they had security, they only opened one door, they described where all of the products were on the floor, they only allowed us to use the escalator single-file up to the store and they said that if anyone ran they would be asked to leave. They knew what they were doing. Bravo, West Loop Target. You kept the peace. Ridiculous that you had to, but still. Bravo.

Before I knew it, 8am was upon us and the race was on again.

My co-worker grabbed stuff for me, we met up and walked rather swiftly to the home goods. She kept going and I paused to get a couple dresses for my niece. Within five minutes virtually everything was gone. We assessed our loot and instead of replacing the items we announced to anyone walking by that we didn't want a couple of things. Women nearby instantly took them.

We were finished and out the door by 8:10 am.

I'm happy that what I bought for myself fit and I'm pumped for my shipment to arrive. I'm hoping the two dresses will fit my niece, too. I've seen so many things on eBay already and it's pretty nuts. So many people got worked up about it and I am ashamed to say I was one of them! It's so easy to get caught up in the hype.

Needless to say, I won't be shopping for myself anytime soon and I certainly won't be a Black Friday regular in the future. This was a little bit much for me, but I can't wait to sport these colorful, preppy prints on sunny days this spring and summer.

Dang you got a bunch of stuff!! Ugh the stupid cart situation was THE WORST!! I had four items, then it would flash to none, then four. By the time it stopped glitch ing I had two. Still working on getting those items delivered to me instead of the wrong address lol!